Redneck Air Conditioner

[kastnerd]

I keep being told by different people that these Redneck air conditioners save people lots of money and cool the room just as well as a real air conditioner. and to unplug your normal AC and use this.

My argument is your making your refrigerator running longer and harder freezing the ice, this cost money.

I understand if you dont have an AC this works.  But is it more cost / energy efficient compared to a real Air Conditioner?

There argument is "your refrigerator is all ready running so its free"

[c4757p]

There argument is "your refrigerator is all ready running so its free"

Your refrigerator pipes the heat it takes out of the water into your house. You'd be more thermodynamically sound just using water out of the tap for this, as at least that typically enters the house at a lower temperature than ambient. (Please don't do that.)

The only true redneck air conditioner is either a beat-up old fan, a speeding truck with its windows down, or an ice-cold bottle of beer.

[N2IXK]

That's nothing compared to the redneck pool heater:

[warp_foo]

I thought of this video when I read the thread title:

[dfmischler]

Guys, rednecks are not necessarily dumb.

The best redneck air conditioner I know of uses well water (approx 45 degrees F [7 C]) run through a heat exchanger with a large squirrel cage blower circulating air through a plenum to cool a store not far from me.  After the water goes through the heat exchanger it is used to water the acre or so of lawn.  This setup keeps the store at about 74 degrees F [23 C] with no problem and seems to use less electricity than a conventional air conditioner.  That well is too full of iron and sulfur to be pleasant to drink, but the owner has found a good use for it.  And the lawn looks great all summer long, too.

The best redneck pool heater is to fill the pool with women wearing bikinis (or less).  Plenty hot.

[djacobow]

This air conditioning arrangement is actually used in light aircraft, where air-con add-ons are unavailable for older aircraft, very expensive for newer aircraft, add weight (even in winter!) and sap precious HP.

http://www.arcticaircooler.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=61&vmcchk=1&Itemid=61

You'd have to be pretty darned lazy and unresourceful to shell out $500+ for one of those, though.

[c4757p]

Guys, rednecks are not necessarily dumb.

Who said they're dumb? Coming from a family of them myself, I'll have you know, they're just hilariously resourceful.

[SirNick]

That URL is one letter away from being the name of the local VW club.  heh.

[NiHaoMike]

For those living where water is "free", there's the trick of turning the shower to full cold and directing a fan at it. Slightly more refined is to use a car radiator or other heat exchanger so it doesn't add humidity.